Boy, maybe Williams Perez can face the Phillies every time out, or at least pretend the opposition has a "P" on their caps, because he seems to have their number. Pitching on his 25th birthday against a team he totally shut down last week, Perez kept the Phillies to just two hits and a walk in six and one-third innings, allowing the Braves to swoop in with a 2-0 win to take the weekend road series.
Those two hits (both singles) and a walk were all the Phillies could manage on the rainy afternoon. Following Perez, Ian Krol, Jason Grilli, and Arodys Vizcaino were perfect, with Grilli and Vizcaino picking up two strikeouts each.
The Braves were also quiet on the offensive end, with just six hits and two runs, both of which scored in the same frame. While the Braves did manage 11 total baserunners thanks to five walks, they ended up stranding a bunch of runners, once again due to a lack of extra-base hits (just two doubles in this game). Still, a win's a win, and the stellar performance from Perez made it possible.
The Braves got their two runs in the fourth off of Marietta native Adam Morgan. Morgan allowed a liner over the infield to Jeff Francoeur and then walked Nick Markakis on four pitches. Tyler Flowers flew out softly to right, but Ender Inciarte followed with a liner to center in a two-strike count. Phillies center fielder Odubel Herrera made an ill-advised dive (he had no chance to catch the ball) and deflected it a bit, but left fielder Tyler Goeddel did a good job of backing up the play and cutting the ball off. Inciarte ended up on second with a double, and Francoeur scored on the play. That set up a sacrifice fly from Erick Aybar to cap the scoring.
(Side note: Someone in the game thread wondered why the Phillies did not intentionally walk Erick Aybar with the pitcher on deck. And the reason, also provided in the game thread, is that no pitcher wants to be the one to intentionally walk 2016 Erick Aybar.)
That pretty much summed up the excitement on the night. The Braves wasted a Chase d'Arnaud leadoff double in the fifth, and Jeff Francoeur struck out to preclude a scoring threat in the 7th after the Braves loaded the bases with two outs. Ender Inciarte also stole third base in the fourth inning (his first steal of the season), but it was kind of irrelevant as Williams Perez grounded out to end the inning. Adam Morgan got the loss despite allowing just four hits and two runs in six innings.
The Braves won a second consecutive replay challenge, after going 0-for-10 to start the season, getting a strike call on a ball that pitch that hit Maikel Franco's bat rather than his hand, as originally ruled.